Arthur Hayes was never one to fade quietly into the background. After co-founding BitMEX and helping pioneer the modern cryptocurrency derivatives market, he has re-emerged in recent years as one of the industry’s most influential macro thinkers. Now serving as Maelstrom’s chief information officer, Hayes has shifted his focus from exchange building to thesis-driven investing, which also includes some social media spoofing.
This feature is part of CoinDesk The Most Influential List of 2025.
Few crypto executives remain as dynamic, chaotic, and strangely insightful as Hayes. His X feed oscillates between detailed macro commentary, pointed market predictions, literary references and the occasional troll-like attack.
But behind the drama lies a record that traders are increasingly concerned about. Hayes is a pioneer in the rise of several AI-related tokens — a space that will dominate speculation flows in 2024 and 2025 — and he publicly supports Zcash the stock has gone on to gain more than 450% over the past year.
At Maelstrom, he further assumed the role of provocateur-cum-strategist. Hayes combines long-term geopolitical analysis with short-term market intuition, often arguing that the next phase of cryptocurrencies will be determined by artificial intelligence infrastructure, privacy-preserving technology and nation-state monetary experiments. His articles are full of irreverence and dark humor, reinforcing his role as professor, trader, and agent of chaos all at once.
In an industry where characters cycle through at a dizzying pace, Hayes remains remarkably durable. He may no longer run a major exchange, but through Maelstrom and his consistently biting social commentary, he remains one of the most relevant voices in the industry.